Connecticut suffered sharp declines in its roster of larger manufacturing plants between 2007 and 2012, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau— but the state had only a slight drop in the smallest “factories” numbering less than five employees.

The Census Bureau released the new report even as Manufacturers News published a separate study suggesting Connecticut’s manufacturing sector could be on the cusp of a rebound, noting the state’s slowing job losses over the past year in the sector.

Major factories locally span the gamut, from Sikorsky Aircraft’s massive Stratford helicopter plant that is the state’s largest, to ASML’s semiconductor equipment production site in Wilton, to Bigelow Tea’s headquarters facility in Fairfield—technically a manufacturing plant by virtue of bagging and boxing tea there that is shipped in from the company plantation in South Carolina.

Multiple local executives told the Connecticut Post that many of their peers continue to see sluggish sales, with significant quote activity but orders not materializing as a result for some. But others have seen an acceleration of business, including Schwerdtle Stamp, a traditional manufacturer that makes tools to mark plastics and metals, which has seen increased work this year from its largest customers, many of them in Mexico.

“I did more in the first half of this year with my biggest customer than in the entire year last year,” said Kathy Saint, CEO of Bridgeport-based Schwerdtle Stamp. “Which is good since last year (stunk).”

The new census data shows that between 2007 and 2012, Connecticut took a hit in its manufacturing ranks with the loss of 575 facilities on a net basis, a 12 percent drop, with losses particularly pronounced for larger establishments that employ 250 people or more. That left the state with just under 4,350 manufacturers, whether the result of facility consolidation, relocations, dissolutions or the impact of the recession. It was a far swifter rate of decline than that for the overall Connecticut economy, which saw a 1.7 percent decline in business establishments over the five year period studied by the Census Bureau.

There was one small ray of sunshine in the manufacturing numbers—a negligible drop in the smallest “factories,” those with fewer than five people. It was a data point that perplexed several industry sources in Connecticut queried by Hearst, with some hazarding the possibility at least some of those companies are startups or existing companies that are doing high-end prototyping work that cannot be replicated easily by others, and so by extension making them comparatively immune to pressures facing some other companies.

For every Procter & Gamble that has chosen to shut down a Connecticut plant—in its case the sprawling Clairol plant in Stamford that was the area’s largest loss between 2007 and 2012—many more have stuck it out here despite the higher costs, for a number of reasons. And many of those expect to grow, according to a 2014 survey by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, which found 85 percent of the some 250 manufacturers it polled planned to add jobs this year.

The lead executive at ASML’s factory in Wilton said the company has never seriously considered relocating its factory here that makes massive automated machines used in the production of semiconductor wafers.

“You have talent here,” said Bill Amalfitano, vice president in charge of ASML’s Wilton plant.